Putin: Great Visionary or Just Lost

[Magda Hassan]

Not the best translation.

http://www.marx.be/fr/content/la-russie-...d%C3%A9mon


Putin's Russia - neither angel nor demon
Contents: No Marxist studies. 108Author: Willi Gerns
Suggestions for a Marxist analysis of Russian politics 112
With backdrop of current events in Ukraine, we know for now in the imperialist countries a hate campaign almost unprecedented anti-Russian. In Germany, she remembers how terrible years of the Nazi dictatorship and the Second World War, as well as those of the height of the Cold War (at the time in the form of anti-Soviet). The sound waves of the campaign even found some resonance among leftist elements. On the other hand, is also found here and there in response to this current, unqualified support to the Russian policy that ignores class relations. Neither one nor the other of these approaches can not be communists.
property and power relations in Russia
As Marxists, when we judge the policy of a state, we leave the question of what is social, what are the relations of property and power that exist in this country, what are the interests of class that determine the policy. We also work through a "concrete analysis of a concrete situation 113 " (Lenin), perceive the current role of this country in the global political context.When we apply these principles to the Russia of today, we have the following findings. Russia is a capitalist country where most of the means of production passed into the hands of private owners of capital as a result of the anti-socialist revolution against. What dominates in this sector is the property stolen by the clan of oligarchs. Meanwhile, despite extensive privatization, we still find quite a state property sector or mixed ownership means of production or financing. When it comes to strategic industries in these areas, the state in general has yet to majority control.Political power is exercised by a dominant elite, to which the power of the upper state bureaucracy allied growing economic power of some clans of oligarchs. By referring to the supreme power organ in the Soviet Union, the authors of a study published in 2012 on the web 114 on the mechanism of power in the Putin regime designate its upper floor as the "Politburo 2.0". This quasi-institution collective power, according to the authors - Russian political scientists Evgeni Mitchenko (President of the holding company Mitchenko Consulting) and Kirill Petrov (leader of the analysis section of the International Institute of Political Expertise) - would have formed during the 2000s following the redistribution of resources of small clans of oligarchs, destruction of media empires and liquidation of much regional chiefdoms.Putin appeared in the role of arbiter and moderator. The head of state also had direct control over long-term gas contracts, management of the energy sector and policy banks. It is the members of this upper level of power and their political and economic positions and their closest associates, that are designated as "candidate Politburo 2.0".The reference to the Political Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee is excessive. It was then the top of a system of power based on a different economic basis, even opposite. However, the description in the study of the union, as the core of the system, between the political power of the State and the economic power of some clans of oligarchs particularly close to the Kremlin is quite relevant. We can talk - despite all the peculiarities - a state monopoly capitalism variant in Russia.
Russia, an imperialist country?
Marxism-Leninism considers the state monopoly capitalism as a variant of development of the imperialist stage of capitalism. That is why we would like to briefly address the question of whether and to what extent the essential features of imperialism that Lenin described in his bookImperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism apply to Russian capitalism today .There is no doubt that it is the fundamental economic characteristics cited in Lenin's book. In particular, the existence and dominance of monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;the merging of bank capital with industrial capital and the creation of a financial oligarchy on the basis of financial capital; as well as the increasingly important role played by export capital.However, one must also take into account Russian peculiarities. While the dominance of monopolies in the classical imperialist countries was the result of long historical processes of concentration and centralization of capital, it results in a relatively short Russia today criminal process where chunks the property of the people were looted during the anti-socialist revolution against. In addition, the oligarchic capital has then developed into more powerful structures - concentration and centralization. Also in Russia, the banking and industrial capital merged, as undoubtedly shows the existence of conglomerates, and a powerful financial oligarchy has emerged. Trends in the development of Russian direct investment abroad show that export capital also plays an increasingly important role. This is true on Russian soil and abroad, due to entanglement with international capital. In conclusion, Putin's Russia is a capitalist country in which the economic foundations of monopoly capitalism - imperialism with some particularities - clearly exist.Regarding the policy of Russia, it is necessary to distinguish between domestic and foreign policy, and between two levels in the foreign policy.Domestic policy is determined by profit and power interests of the ruling class described above. It is oriented on one side towards the creation of conditions conducive to the most efficient and profitable operation can the Russian working class, but also on the other side, towards the strengthening of the stability of the regime both by social grants and an aggressive policy.In addition, the occasional positive stance with regard to the legacy of the Soviet Union also used to obtain the commitment of large sections of the Russian people to the Putin regime, fractions that are proud of the Soviet superpower like apogee Russian history. This pride is expressed even also to some extent in some sections of the ruling class, particularly among those who, like Putin, are from the group silowiki the uniform wearers. However, this has nothing to do with sympathy for socialism.This now reflects Russian nationalist positions, a yearning for a strong capitalist Russia.
Two aspects in Russian foreign policy
In foreign policy, the first aspect is what is called in Russia's near abroad. We mean by that the relations with the successor states to the Soviet Union, excluding the Baltic States. Putin's regime is pursuing a long-term policy of reintegration under Russian direction. The pivot is the Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which must then be converted into a Eurasian Economic Community and in a Eurasian union. At this level, it is recognized in the relations of Russia with its weaker partners practices reminiscent of imperialistic methods. This among other repeated economic pressure on Belarus to force its leaders to abandon the Belarusian state property to the multinational Russian Gazprom and pave the way for the entry of Russian oligarchs in the Belarusian economy.The United States, NATO and the European Union are desperate to prevent reintegration of former Soviet republics. Russia should be limited to its own borders and simultaneously be economically and militarily encircled through association agreements between the EU and the successor states of the Soviet Union and the further enlargement of NATO to the East. This is the backdrop of the current crisis in Ukraine.The second aspect of Russian foreign policy regarding world politics. Unlike the United States and their NATO accomplices, one should not expect today nor in the near future on the part of Russia of world domination ambitions. necessary power relations do not exist elsewhere in for such domination. Putin's Russia rather seeks to oppose world domination ambitions of US imperialism a multipolar world order. For this purpose, there is a great correlation between the position of Russia and the interests of China and other BRICS as well as with those of other countries. This position is objectively in the interests of peace and social progress.The consideration of Lenin's statements about the existence of different variants of the capitalist and imperialist policy, as well as the concrete analysis of the concrete situation before and during the Second World War helped the Soviet Union, despite all the contradictions with the imperialist Western powers to recognize in imperialist Germany the main danger for the USSR and humanity.This became the basis for the struggle of the Soviet Union for its collective security and made possible, in fact and in spite of all the difficulties, the anti-Hitler coalition, significant factor in the victory over Nazi Germany.I am convinced that the concrete analysis of the current concrete historical situation in the world should lead us to recognize clearly in the field of international politics that Russia is a capitalist country, dominated by oligarchs and state bureaucracy is closely linked to it; to make a clear difference between Russia and the major imperialist powers and considered as main threat to peace and social progress the policy of world domination of US imperialism and its imperialist henchmen of NATO and EU .Willi Gerns is contributor to the magazine Marxistische Blätter .
This article and the next are translated from German. The magazine Marxist Studies seeks people willing to occasionally translate German articles into French. Contact Editor emms@marx.be .112 This article appeared first in Unsere Zeit , June 2014, p. 12.113 Lenin, "Communism", Works , vol. 31, p. 168.114 See www.mitchenko.ru/analitika . This study was discussed in detail in the number of Unsere Zeit on 14 September 2012.